Environment
As part of its commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility, the MDTA actively monitors and manages its impact on the environment. The MDTA prioritizes energy efficiency, emissions reduction, and conservation efforts across its operations. Ongoing initiatives align with best practices and regulatory standards, ensuring a positive environmental footprint for the communities it serves. The MDTA strives to be an environmental steward, not just adhering to environmental laws, regulations, and policies, but aspiring to go beyond compliance and move the agency toward sustainability. The MDTA manages its environmental efforts with cooperation and participation from each of the agency’s offices and divisions.
Pollution and Waste AIR POLLUTANTS
The MDTA documents and tracks the organization’s environmental performance through the agency’s Environmental Management System (EMS). As a core component of the EMS, the MDTA implements an environmental statement, which is currently being refined to reflect the MDTA’s structure and priorities and expected to be approved in 2025. The policy statement affirms the MDTA’s commitment to sustainable development; climate resiliency; environmental compliance; stewardship; continuous improvement in environmental performance; and effective interaction with employees, other government agencies, and the community. Third-party environmental compliance audits are performed to assist in the monitoring and measurement of the MDTA’s pursuit of ongoing compliance with federal, State, and local environmental requirements, including facility-specific permits, plans, certifications, controls (engineered and administrative), and authorizations. The audits serve as a diagnostic tool within the MDTA’s EMS program to assess compliance and identify opportunities for improvement for MDTA staff and practices. Three environmental compliance audits are conducted annually, and each audit evaluates up to three media area/topics. A three-year look-back period is incorporated into each multimedia compliance audit performed.
Burning of fossil fuels for transportation not only contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but also to other types of air pollution that contribute to poor air quality, such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the transportation sector is responsible for approximately 45% of NOx,10% of VOCs, and 10% of PM emissions in the United States. 1 These pollutants have been shown to cause adverse health effects, including higher rates of asthma onset and aggravation, cardiovascular disease, and impaired lung development in children, among other populations. As such, the MDTA ensures the proper management of all air emissions in its construction and operation activities.
1 https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/smog-soot-and-other-air-pollution-transportation
Environmental, Social, and Governance Report 12
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